Top 5 New Star Wars Stories!

The New Star Wars Hope

One of the aspects of Rogue One: A Star Wars story, that has interested me since I first heard about it's premise would be the potential for a new expansive universe within Star Wars. While many a deeply ingrained Star Wars fans who have read the comics, books or played the various forms of Star Wars media can tell you about the adventures of hundreds of characters outside the films. Those stories have yet to see the light of day on the cinematic theater screens across the world. Those days however, may be behind us if Rogue One has anything to say about it. 

Not only this, but with Bob Igor's push to expand the Star Wars property with the upcoming untitled Han Solo film, we're set to have a new and riveting Star Wars cinematic universe, on par with Marvel's theatrical ambitions, if not even more ambitious as all the lessons of building a cinematic universe will be pushed into Star Wars from the start.

Looking to the Future

We see a few new paths for Disney to take the Star Wars franchise based on the evidence we now have of Rogue One, Han Solo and the episodic films. Here's our list of potential spin offs, sequels and prequels and our reasoning behind them!

A New Sith Empire

Looking at evidence from Episode 7 and some of the canon tie in novels we are beginning to see the shadow like organization of the First Order take shape, but we're left unsure of exactly who runs this military organization. For one, we know the First Order was formed from remnants of the Galactic Empire run by the former Emperor fleeing into 'Unknown Space', the real wild west of the Star Wars galaxy. Then, with support from splinter political groups within the New Republic (formerly known as the Rebel Alliance) we see the First Order take shape. But there's a few red flags we're missing important elements of this process.

For one, every military organization requires supplies to feed, cloth and otherwise organize a massive military force. Not only this, but we see clear evidence of Imperial progression in weapons and technology, showing that not only have these fringe elements fled the known Galaxy, but they've profited greatly from doing so- driving the question, who or what has managed to feed into the military R&D department of the New Order?

One of these answers may come in the form of Disney XD's Star wars: Rebels tv series, which as of season 3 has introduced the character Admiral Thrawn. Thrawn, was not human but Chiss. Humoniod and considered to be extremely intelligent. Not only this, but as as old canon goes- the Chiss provided a number of technological advances for the Empire and resided in the 'Unknown Regions' of space. Choosing to not make official contact with the greater galaxy. Though no mention of this has been made yet, there's a lot of room for expanding this idea as you may imagine. Perhaps the First Order recognized this advantage and capitalized on it upon returning to the Unknown Regions?

While the clear leadership of Supreme Leader Snoke is an obvious indicator that a Dark Side user has once again reclaimed leadership over the Empire, we have yet again a list of questions as to who Snoke is and where he came from. A powerful Sith would not simply exist undetected in a universe like Star Wars unless perhaps because he existed for a time in the unknown regions.

This really leads to our theory, that Episodes 8 and 9 may lead to the reveal that the New Order has been hijacked if you will- by the formerly hidden Sith Empire that has laid in wait for thousands of years

So while jumping into all this former lore may be a bit bulky for Episodes 8 and 9, introducing the idea that a slumbering Empire or failed state of Sith (or likely their offspring) energized and capitalized on their encounter with the also failed remnants of the Galactic Empire to combine their forces, power, supplies to produce the resurgence known as the First Order. Even the name itself, would hearken back in this sense, as a reclamation of the Galactic Empire back into the 'original sith' if you will.

And to be frank: It's not even that original of an idea. As fans of the series 'Knights of the Old Republic' can tell you, something very similar to this happened when Jedi Revan and his followers went searching for 'a dark force' in the unknown regions. When they returned they were Sith and had a Sith Armada with them. This wasn't even the full force of the Sith Empire either- rather an elaborate test of strength against the Republic, but the parallels between Revan's Sith Armada and the New Order's Navel Fleet is worth taking note to.

The Old Republic

Jumping off from Episodes 7, 8 and 9 this would be a great opportunity for Disney to jump into the Old Republic, in particular if they've introduced the idea of the former Sith Empire and are looking to create another profitable saga of films. While the Old Republic is a vast, sprawling time period with hundreds of former Legends stories already populating its past, now Disney would have the opportunity to selectively tell its own story.

The largest challenge with an Old Republic style film (much less series) would be the connective tissue to Star Wars as we know it today. Though they may have lightsabers, locations and mythology in common, much of what makes up the Old Republic as we see in Legends is still distinctly different in artistic approach. This could lead to issues of convincing your average movie goer that this is still Star Wars and not just a cheap trick to get people into theater seats by slapping a Star Wars logo on a sci fi adventure film. 

Worse yet, there would be the challenge of bringing in brand new characters and building this time period's lore from essentially scratch. Though I wouldn't call it impossible, considering a film like Guardian's of the Galaxy did just fine, despite average theater goers not having read any of the previous comics, or Guardian's having a direct relation to any of the former superhero films. The key to this you may note was Guardian's nemesis. By keeping Thanos the overarching bad guy in Guardian's as he is in the rest of the Marval universe this kept the film afloat with the understanding that these characters would later have a role in the larger MCU.

How Disney chooses to go about the Old Republic is still up for debate- if they choose to go down that path. But considering the amount of lore in this time period, it's hard to imagine they'd outright ignore it.

Boba Fett

Though not officially announced as a film lined up by Disney it has been hotly suggested from rumors swirling from within Disney itself. A Boba Fett film would likely fit into the classification of a character piece, as Boba Fett as far as we know, has not had a notable role in the Star Wars universe (such as stealing the death star plans). Not only this, but Boba Fett is arguably a villein which leads to the issues of making his character likable on screen. Though we may love to root for the bad guys in a film because of simply how freakin' cool they are. Putting them on the screen for two hours may prove too much. As we know, Fett isn't one to talk a lot on film and even the younger Fett we see in shows such as The Clone Wars provides evidence of an angry, lustful for revenge youth, who only is in it for himself (mostly).

One method that could be used to tell Boba Fett's story would be to have a sort of Suicide Squad type story. In which all the characters are on the same side, yet possibly pitted against one another. A Boba Fett film will be a difficult challenge for whomever pens this story, as the iconic character is at a great threat of becoming boring, dumbed down, or unappealing if not written into the story correctly. Not only this, but due to Boba Fett being a clone of a previously cast actor- this does limit Disney to having to use that actor unless they simply recast. Which by no means am I suggesting that Temuera Morrison did a poor job as Jango Fett- simply that this may deter Disney as their options for this character now become limited due to being previously cast some years ago.

The next challenge for Boba Fett would be time period. An early Boba Fett during the height of the Empire might be appealing to some, but personally I would love to see Boba Fett crawl from the jaws of the sarlacc that was intended to kill him- and essentially be forced to start over in a galaxy that was also about to change with the destruction of the second death star- and death of the Emperor.

On the flip side, Star Wars Rebels mid season 3 trailer has suggested that the Mandalorians may fight with the Rebel Alliance, now Boba Fett himself is no Mandalorian, but wears the armor none the less. Providing an interesting story regarding Boba Fett defending himself and the people he chooses to be apart of.

Rogue Squadron

If you haven't seen Rogue One you should But regardless you can expect this: The Rebels go on to fight another day. So what's this say about a sequel to Rogue One? Outside of the laughs that have been made that 'A New Hope' is a sequel to Rogue One we have another thought. I wouldn't call it a direct sequel, but a film that focus' on the infamous Rogue Squadron may be a proper spiritual sequel to Rogue One. With a recent marathon of Star War's films, it became very clear to us one thing in particular: the in universe 'Rogue Squadron' certainly must have been created in honor of the in universe 'Rogue One' crew who's daring mission stole the death star plans.

For those who don't know, Rogue Squadron was promoted to near stardom within Star Wars thanks to writers such as Michael A. Stackpole who wrote half of the Rogue Squadron book series. Made up of elite pilots taking on daring top secret missions for the Rebel Alliance, Rogue Squadron was as much about ace combat pilots as it was these soldiers pulled into entanglements on the ground. So essentially, as Rogue One is about Rebel spies on the ground, this is akin to the same but in space. It's hard to really pinpoint what story a Rogue Squadron centered story could take, but seeings as they provided a backdrop to many of the larger operations in the original trilogy, I wouldn't be surprised to see a Rogue Squadron setting up the events of Return of the Jedi or aiding in the recovery of the plans to the Second Death Star- in which many Bothans died as a result of.

Obiwan's Lost Years

This theory has gained some traction since the popular Rey is Obiwan's granddaughter theory started to spread online. For the record, there is no concrete proof Rey is Obiwan's granddaughter until we learn something new in Episode 8. But, assuming this is true for even a moment, there's an opportunity to bring back Ewan Mcgregor as Obiwan sometime between the events of Episode 3 and 4. 

As many will remember, Obiwan devoted his life to watching over Luke Skywalker in this time and while many assumed this was a pretty boring job in the desert, new canon comics however show that wasn't entirely true and Obiwan found himself on a number of mini adventures even while keeping an eye on Luke. While this isn't any kind of proof that Obiwan found love on the desert, this isn't to say it couldn't be true either.

This is certainly an interesting idea, even if Obiwan and Rey aren't related, it still would be a fascinating character piece to understand Obiwan's role over Luke, his struggle to cope with a changing galaxy, learning new aspects of the force and possibly additional motives to his character removing himself from such a central position as member of the Jedi council. One would imagine that if Yoda's last words were to go separate ways until the time was right- after a few years Obiwan might start to get an itch to find a way to help the Rebellion. Especially with Bale Organa knowing where he was and was available for use (remember it was Bale who sought out Obiwan to bring the death star plans to Alderaan)

But at this rate, we may learn new evidence of Obiwan's early involvement within the Rebel Alliance from the likes of Rogue One.

Mun Tech: A Retrospective Look at Failed Ideas

Ah yes, one of my first rovers I've ever built. Arguably a rolling slab, this little guy didn't do much other than go forwards and backwards- and explode. One of the hardest aspects to roving on the Mun is simply the low gravity. I can only imagine how it must be on any of the inner planets or even Minmus. Regardless, roving on the Mun brings about its own set of challenges, such as gravity and gaining way too much momentum. There's a few solutions I've found, such as stabilizing your craft using Monopropellant or using the docking system rather than the rocket system to drive your rover. But really the Devs just need a dedicated roving system.

 This is one of those ideas that honestly pisses me off that it doesn't work as well as you'd like. Land based, Mun landing lights. I'm not looking for the impossible, just some high intensity lighting that will glow from a couple kilometers off. Okay, maybe that's asking a bit much.

 To be fair, this is still among the best Mun Rover I've ever made. The center of gravity was low, the craft was wide and flat- it was nearly perfect. Nearly. The biggest fault in this design came in the shape of the science probes you'll see jutting from the center mass of the rover. They were intended to decouple from the center of the craft, tossing itself into the field even as the rover moved. The problem was, they'd often get caught under the wheels as the Rover whizzed over the Mun surface at 70 meters per second. Which resulted in big explosions and nasty results.

But this craft will always have a special place in my heart, even if it can't be produced anymore. As with many of the updates, things change and in this case- building wheels on top of other wheels isn't possible anymore. Which is sad news, as the multiple wheels are what made this rover work so well on the Mun.

Kerbal Space Program: The Great Mun Race

I have no idea how this vessel even came to fly. Before the days of fairings, optimized rockets, or even atmosphere mods I was flying by the skin of my teeth with little, to no guidance. I hadn't a clue what I was doing as many of these pictures will make very apparent.

A friend of mine named Jordan turned me on to Kerbal Space Program and quickly our conquest for space pitted us against each other to achieve a landing on the Mun. A monumental task considering neither of us knew how to even exit the atmosphere back then. Jordan would be the first to exit the atmosphere but I wasn't far behind him, though I recall him giving me a few pointers. I wasn't anymore clever then your average space enthusiast and I recall not understanding how going straight up somehow didn't equal making orbit.

Though Jordan may have been the first to reach space, heck he may have been the first to reach the Mun. But I was gaining pace and already had developed a completely untested lander. I was proceeding exactly in Kerbal Space Program style- and I would come to pay for that soon enough.

It's tough when you first start off in Kerbal because you don't have a good sense of how much fuel you'll need for any particular launch. This would come to be the biggest problem I would face. Landing the craft on the Mun wasn't good enough- the winner would have to get back home too. My first attempt ended in scattered parts across the Mun.

My second, third and forth attempts didn't get me much further. While I was gaining critical knowledge which eventually led to stranding my kerbals on the surface of the Mun, I wasn't much closer to actually bringing anyone home.

While it may have taken a number of tries. Eventually, I started to figure it out and with that knowledge came even more experimentation and more advancements in deployment on the surface of the Mun. Winning the Mun race was a big deal and as time has gone on, I've really come to believe that if you can land on the Mun- you can go anywhere within Kerbal Space Program. The only thing you need is a little bit of determination and a proper amount of fuel.

I decided to write this article today to encourage every young Kerbal Space Program astronaut to not give up. The biggest challenges may lie ahead of you, but that's not to say they're not conquerable.

KSP Log: 002 Airbreaks Make Rentry Simple

Having trouble during re-entry? So did I until I found this awesome method to avoid most disastrous entries. The story goes like this, atmospheric drag was implemented and like most players I suddenly found my craft slamming into brick walls- those once easy sub orbitals that I passed off like grains of salt suddenly became heaping mounds of trouble. Nothing was safe- including my Kerbals.

As I experimented with ways to increase my drag during re-entry I got the slick idea to use Airbreak's to slow my decent. I mean, they have the word 'break' in them so I figured it couldn't be all bad. I applied multiple airbreak units to my craft and right clicked on the units to turn off their atmospheric controls. Meaning, they wouldn't work when maneuvering and would only deploy when I turned on the breaks manually.

The use of the airbreaks have worked wonderfully and when properly applied have proven the difference between life and death. While other considerings have to be made, such as proper use of parachutes and heat shields, the airbreaks form a vital first step top drop airspeed and prepare your craft for decent. Typically I won't drop into an atmosphere if I'm moving more than 3000 meters per second, but that's not to say I haven't skirted the higher limits of that limitation. In this picture to the left you'll notice I've used the deployable airbreaks on a probe. Not to toot my own horn, but this craft was a real work of art. Using the thrusters and airbreaks to slow its decent into Eve's atmosphere before jettisoning the mentioned components. Falling slower the parachutes were deployed and provided for a soft landing on Eve's surface. The heat shield was larger than necessary, but that was largely on purpose to protect the components behind the shield. I couldn't be too careful on Eve- prior landings have taught me how thick the atmosphere is, so I worried I might burn up if I wasn't careful.

 Today's final example of airbreaks were used to deorbit a small space station. You'll note in the rear there being a craft slightly larger than the closer craft. Both utilize airbreaks to slow their decent, but really none of this would have been possible if the airbreaks weren't there to slow the crafts during decent. In order to salvage both craft it meant docking in the shape of a 'T' and burning fuel de-orbit. That was the simple part, slowing the lop-sided craft was the hard part. But once again, with the aid of airbreaks it proved useful enough to slow decent, launch the parachutes and detach the craft. Both craft landed safely and most important- were recovered for a full refund on parts.

KSP Log: 001 - Bill Goes Skydiving

I've been using Facebook less and less, but I really love sharing my experiences on Kerbal Space Program. So today I decided I would start logging my adventures through space on my very own blog. Previously, I've reviewed games and my own life experiences and to an extent- I may still. But perhaps this aspect will really take off and what I have to share will really help other players in their own space faring adventures across the Kerbal System. While I'm still not entirely settled on what kind of information I'll be sharing beyond personal Kerbal stories. I would certainly like to see this become a resource for other players who'd like to master what can seemingly be the impossible. Looking back, I know I was scrambling across the web looking for any information I could find on docking, orbiting or any other (now) basic maneuvers that at the time seemed to be frustratingly difficult.

Today however, I'm going to keep it simple. You'll note from the picture above that Bill wasn't doing so good for himself as he fell through the Kerbin atmosphere (ProTip: I use a couple of mods, in this case an atmosphere mod that really adds to the visual experience.) So here's the story, I have a craft that I'm trying to return home from Minmus but the problem is, I ran out of fuel to slow my craft down and unfortunately I was coming in at a really steep slope. Which means my craft didn't have the necessary time to slow down, nor did it matter as the craft didn't have a heat shield. After a few moments of flight the entire craft started to rip itself apart before exploding into shrapnel in the sky! Luckily, I quick-saved (F5) prior to entering the atmosphere. This gave me a few tries to get it right, but no matter what I tried, I just couldn't cause enough friction to slow down my craft quickly enough. The re-entry heat can be a real pain sometimes.

So in my final try I decided all was lost. I sent out via transmission all the science data I had collected and hunkered down. The craft thrashed and flipped but held together just enough for Bill to exit the craft. Even while the craft was sheering apart from the heat, Bill was protected from the bulk of the heat. The cockpit exploded, but again Bill was saved from the worst of it. The flaming craft finally slowed, the fire reseeded and Bill was left in free fall with a pile of metal around him. There wasn't much choice, he was going to have to jump solo.

This created a bit of a situation, as Kerbals don't come stock with parachutes. But I knew there was a slim chance he may still survive. I was only a few thousand meters over the ocean at this point, so I ignited my jetpack and vectored myself against the looming ocean. It wasn't a slow decent, but I burned off enough speed to still slam hard into the ocean. To my surprise and perhaps the Kerbal Gods themselves Bill survived. The mission may have been a failure, but that's not to say everything was lost. Bill would return to fly another day- and hopefully with better equipment.

SEO, Marketing and Just a Little Fairy Dust

These past couple of weeks have been a nail biting adventure. The tension is real, the stress is palpable, and the nerves are beyond fried. Welcome to Marketing. Though really marketing doesn't seem incredibly difficult, not from a creative standpoint. Marketing is difficult from an endurance standpoint. There are plenty of articles and links to really high quality resources. Such as Moz, whom I've become incredibly friendly with their help articles.

Frankly, there's just a lot to do. There's an overwhelming number of facets and angles marketing has to be attacked from and tended to. From social to analytical it drives a very wide path down an even wider road. A little over a week ago a colleague and myself started on the journey to repair the marketing damage that had been done to Lettering on the Cheap. I've worked in Video for a few years, so I had a sense of what needed to be done from the outside looking in, but I didn't know what I was getting myself into before I looked under the hood. While LOTC is a great company and I would encourage anyone to purchase from them for any of the Vinyl Lettering or Graphic needs, from a marketing standpoint LOTC lacks a lot of optimization and because of that- it has fallen behind the pack.

This is where Tyler and I come in. A week later we are up to our neck with tweaks and changes and an avalanche of new Link Prospects we are making headway. Hopefully with this new surge of work we'll start to see real results, wish us luck!

Kerbal Space Program V1 REVIEW!

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I have been to play the official Version 1.0 of KSP. Having sank over 800 hours into Kerbal since I started in .18 it's been one hell of a journey to where KSP stands today. So was the anticipation worth it? Was the hype train worth the wait? In a couple words: Hell Yeah.

Right off the bat there's some really fantastic big changes to KSP. First and foremost an proper atmospheric drag model has been implemented into the game. You'll notice it as soon as you launch your first rocket. But to really feel the effects, you only need to wander into your space plane hanger and construct a winged vessel. There are a number of things about the atmosphere that create a more compelling experience. For one, parachutes finally seem to work in a realistic way. While I was cruising around at 300m/s in an early space plane (that admittedly was more plane than space.) I found myself taking off using nothing but the forces of air pressure under my wings and slowing due to drag after launching parachutes will gliding to a stop. It's subtle, but the changes make for a brand new set of experiences to play with. Space planes in general have been boosted with various new parts including landing gear, winglets and air intakes.

But the new areo model is really only half the recipe. The new implementation of heat has been a serious game changer. Previously your craft would harmlessly catch on fire as it re-entered the atmosphere or broke supersonic speeds. But no more. Now heat- or friction has turned beautiful spires of fire into horrifying moments of nail biting experiences. As I discovered dozens of times (and I mean dozens) friction really turns on you in multiple ways. It's not simply a matter of entering the atmosphere as perhaps the classic 'movie-esque' belief goes. Friction is a relation to how your craft moves within a dense atmosphere- it's like swimming. This all relates back to the parts your craft are built from. Sometimes you can get away with making your ship more aerodynamic, so it slips through the atmosphere like a knife or other times you can use a heat shield. Each situation has its pro's and con's and even then things don't always go as planned. For instance, I've used a heat shield on a top heavy vessel, but without SAS it spun and flipped me upside down- rendering the shield useless and ultimately turned my ship into a fireball.

But it's not all big changes that make a difference. The 'advance to next day' button outside your space center is a welcomed addition, making it far easier to launch during the day. Other elements like additional parts, engines and connectors have helped bridge the gaps the previous versions fell short on.

The biggest and perhaps most profound element to KSP is mining. However, I haven't advanced far enough in the game to properly review it yet. I will gladly offer a second Review as I've advanced further in the game. However, after the first few hours in KSP, I'm a solid believer.

8/10 - Can't wait to see what they do next.